All Catholics should be ashamed, especially those who make excuses for their leaders and minimize their crimes.
Horrible.
MONTREAL - A Quebec judge rejected a motion to delay a multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit against a religious order accused of sexually abusing deaf and mute children.
The Clerics of Saint Viator wanted the judge to force the members of the class-action to prove - before the trial started - that they were legally allowed to sue.
Lawyer Pierre Boivin, who represents the alleged victims, said Canadian law gives victims a three-year window after a crime was committed in order to come forward.
However, in sexual abuse cases, jurisprudence allows victims a larger window, due to the trauma associated with molestation, Boivin said.
Boivin said that if the clerics got their way, members of the class-action would have had to prove that victims were abused significantly enough to be granted a larger prescribed time.
"It would have been extremely traumatizing to the victims," he told QMI Agency.
The judge agreed and in her Aug. 8 ruling, rejected the clerics' motion. The trial should begin next year, Boivin said.
Members of the Clerics of Saint Viator are accused of molesting hundreds of their students at a school for the deaf and mute in north Montreal between 1940 and 1982.
Court documents allege the clerics were vicious sexual predators against children who had difficulty communicating due to their disabilities.
The class-action currently represents 75 people, however, Boivin said that the number is the "tip of the iceberg."
Lawyers are demanding $100,000 for each victim.
None of the accusations have been proven in court and QMI was unable to reach the Saint Viator Clerics for comment.
